Keystone Magazine Learning the Keystone Way 2015-2016 EN | Page 42

Learning is Fun
Not Just for
the Sake of Art:
Grade 8 Seeks Meaning and Messages
“ W
h e n w e
first started
discussing
Guernica in
our Visual
Arts class, I
just saw chaos. And when I real-
ized that it was a Picasso, I was
even more surprised because it
was just black, white and blue
(or grey because it was a print
out). But, I think this is one of
Picasso’s best works,” said Joya
Zhao from grade 8. Joya’s class-
mate, Terry Wang notes, “Art is
not only about beautiful paint-
ings.” This is exactly what their
Visual Arts teacher, Paulina Agu-
ilera was hoping her students
would reflect on in their unit
on printmaking called ‘I Have A
Voice.’
“My hope is that students will
40
see art as performing many
functions – a vehicle for change
is one of those functions,” said
Ms. Aguilera, adding, “It is im-
portant for me to engage and
motivate students. By making
real-world connections in a
local context, students were
able to more easily connect
with concepts. In this unit, for
example, students analyzed the
work of Lin Tianmiao, a famous,
contemporary Beijing artist to
see how she represents ideas
of tradition and modernization
through her work. For an inter-
national perspective, we also
looked at the work of Chris Jor-
dan, Theo Jansen, Jose Guade-
lupe Posada, Pablo Picasso and
Judith and Richard Lang. All of
these artists communicate their
views of social issues through
representational artwork.”
From Picasso to Posada, and
from Lin to Lang, these middle
school students have learned
that art is not just for art’s sake.
They are able to visualize peace
in Picasso’s near-monochro-
matic, gut-aching depiction of
violence; they see dimensions
of gender perspectives and
subjectivity in Lin’s installa-
tions. This approach to media
literacy helps students better
understand the real beauty of
art, even in the colorless chaos
of images. The research and